Malaysia had a few fun 'firsts' - our first border crossing by land, our first new country for 2014 and the first time we've been asked by a guy working in a frozen yoghurt shop if he could have his picture taken with us! We're still not sure what it was that made him want a picture... Our amazingly good looks, or our numerous tattoos... I'm going with the good looks!
Getting to the Woodlands Train Checkpoint proved to be quite a mission. In the end we decided to fork out for a taxi (and the more expensive train ticket from Singapore) because we didn't have enough time, nor did we want to carry our luggage halfway across the country on several local buses and trains to get there. There are only certain taxis that can get you across to Malaysia to book the cheaper train tickets (and these taxis cost more, of course!). Tickets for the train from Singapore to KL Sentral can be purchased in several ways and depending where you book (Singapore or Malaysia) will determine how much you pay. For a full explanation I'd suggest checking out the following website before booking http://www.seat61.com/Malaysia.htm#.U2CJF62SwbQ. It also suggests which seats to book for the best view and to ensure you are facing forwards instead of backwards for the journey - I don't know about you, but the thought of traveling backwards for hours makes my stomach churn.
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| Border crossing at Woodlands Train Checkpoint in Singapore |
The train trip was interesting. We were in a non smoking car but unfortunately the air conditioning was blowing smoke from another car into ours, yuck!
I'd read online that you can buy food onboard from the 'restaurant carriage'. I'm not sure if we were looking in the wrong place, but all we found was a guy sitting a few cars from us with a trolley that had cold meals that were supposed to be hot (noodles etc) and a rather interesting sweet tasting bread stick with melted cheese on top. It filled us up so that was the main thing.
By the time we arrived at KL Sentral I'd become quite good at quickly snapping photos as we went past things. Don't be fooled though, we weren't flying past at 100 miles an hour. No, this was a more leisurely paced train. This is something that gave us quite a laugh along the way once we realised we probably could've run there faster!
We were staying just outside the city centre towards Chow Kit and it was perfect for us - close enough to walk to the Perdana Botanical Garden for me to explore while Scotty ran; there were night markets in the streets right behind our hotel; and it was only a 20 minute walk to the Petronas Twin Towers and other sightseeing attractions. There were two train stations both within a 10 minute walk of the hotel which gave us access to the whole city and beyond.
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| Wandering around the Perdana Botanical Garden |
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| Night markets behind our hotel |
I love exploring new places and navigating your way around with very little knowledge of how you're actually going to get somewhere or where it is you're actually going.
We did a trip out to the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia (FRIM) which was really cool. We caught the train to Kepong Sentral Station and got off there to catch a taxi the rest of the way. One thing to watch out for, and something we've come across on several occasions in different countries, is taxi drivers pretending they don't know where you're asking them to take you, but knowing full well where it is and just not wanting to take you because it's such a small fare. This happened when we were leaving FRIM, two different drivers pretended they didn't know where the train station was that we needed to get to. We were actually in one of the taxis and he kept trying to ask why we wanted to go to that particular train station instead of all the way back into KL. We pretended we were meeting friends there so he started acting like he couldn't understand where we meant and that he didn't know where it was, so we had to get out and hail another taxi. By the third driver I was getting quite frustrated so asked him straight up if he was going to take us to the train station or not, and he begrudgingly said yes.
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| Pretty excited about our visit to the Forest Research Institute of Malaysia |
Apart from that it was a fantastic experience visiting FRIM. You got to walk up through the forest to a tree top canopy which had fantastic views. You then make your way back down along the river and through the forest to where you started. There were locals swimming in the river and having a lovely time. Just watch out for leaches... I had one make it's way in between my toes without me realising and it had a great feast on my blood! Yuck!
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| Locals swimming at FRIM |
Another highlight in KL was the Batu Caves, of course! You can't visit KL without going to the Batu Caves. And who doesn't love walking up hundreds of stairs to see inside! To be completely honest, the actual cave itself isn't really anything to write home about in my opinion (for those that haven't been in many caves then you'll love it), but the whole experience and the view from outside with the giant Hindu statue and all the stairs leading up to the cave is an impressive sight.
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| Catching the train to the Batu Caves |
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| Out the front of the Batu Caves |
Another must see of course are the Petronas Twin Towers. We had quite an adventure getting there with it starting to rain when we were halfway from our hotel with no umbrella. But you don't mind a bit of rain when it's still 30 degrees. The towers are really impressive - such amazing modern architecture.
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| Petronas Twin Towers on a rainy day in Malaysia |
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| A very cool fountain outside the Petronas Twin Towers |
To get stunning views of the towers at night I recommend going to Traders Hotel. They have a fantastic skybar with window seats (couches) that look straight out onto the towers. Get in early though, the window seats get snapped up quickly, and once you've got one, you'd be mad to let it go!
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| Having a drink at the Traders Hotel Skybar |
Another fun touristy thing to do is a trip to the Menara Tower. We walked there from our hotel and got to see a birds eye view of the city at night which was really impressive. It was also fun to read about the other sky towers all over the world and the height of each tower.
Something I'm terrible at when traveling is relaxing. There's always so much to see and so little time. But, I made an exception in KL. We had a late afternoon flight so had some free time, but didn't want to head too far afield in case we got held up and couldn't get back to the airport in time (if you know my husband, you'll know that he hates airports and becomes rather stressed about getting to check in on time with luggage that doesn't exceed the weight allowance).
So, we made our way to Bukit Bintang (the shopping Mecca of KL) and spent the morning window shopping and eating. There was a whole floor dedicated to restaurants and cafes... perfect! We then decided to watch a movie at the cinema, after checking it was going to be in English of course. Because sitting and watching a movie is 'oh so stressful' we decided to treat ourselves to a massage at Seventh Heaven - a rather swanky place we found on the top floor of the mall that had a number of massage and beauty stores to choose from.
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| An afternoon of relaxation |
It was the perfect way to end our time in Malaysia. We left KL feeling like we'd done everything we set out to do, and more!
Next stop... China!
